


what other amazements lie in the dark seed of the earth?

by zigzagoon



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alfred the cat got lucky, Angst, Animal Death, Gen, One Shot, Stillbirth, this is like. a lot sadder than i meant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 15:55:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20744816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zigzagoon/pseuds/zigzagoon
Summary: I think I did right to go out alone,and give it back peacefully, and cover the placewith the reckless blossoms of weeds.-One of Damian's cats has kittens.The smallest one reminds Bruce of himself, in a way.





	what other amazements lie in the dark seed of the earth?

**Author's Note:**

> poem is The Kitten by Mary Oliver.

The cat had given birth in the night. It went well, luckily, as Damian was still asleep in his room. Bruce was alone, save for the exhausted mother cat and the tangled mass of tiny paws and tails. There were three, he counted, small mouths desperately searching for the warmth of their mother. The fourth did not move. Bruce gently scooped up the stillborn kitten, already running through how he was going to break the news to Damian in the morning. 

It didn’t look like a kitten, he realized, looking closer. It was the runt of the litter, he knew, but it was strange and broken and twisted in ways he did not understand. It was incomplete. 

He couldn’t help but compare it to himself. 

Its living siblings had already piled themselves on their mother, squeaking. The mother cat did not seem to miss her grotesque daughter, instead stretching her paws in relief. Bruce held the tiny thing close, trying, trying to warm its tiny body. He should put it in a little box. Let the boys bury it in the morning. The sun would rise in four hours, he guessed, and he would not have gotten any sleep. 

He felt incomplete. Ever since he was a child, he had been incomplete. He did not know if it was his parents' death, or his emotional issues, or the constant trauma that comes with being Batman, but he felt like this kitten. Strange, and broken, and twisted in ways nobody quite understood. 

Its body was growing colder by the minute. Its single, perfect eye was already clouding over. Bruce knew he could never have saved this kitten. He still felt it was his fault.  
He still felt he had failed his son, somehow.  
Maybe he had.  
Maybe he had done the wrong thing, involving his children in his work. 

Jason wouldn’t have died, that way. 

Bruce doubled over, wrapping himself over the tiny kitten like he was trying to protect it from the world. He shook, trying not to sob. He did feel for the kitten, of course he did, but remembering Jason’s death was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Damian’s cat only watched him. She didn’t understand the world her people lived in, and likely never will. She only did what a cat can do- she watched from afar, caring deeply in her own feline way. 

Bruce did not notice this, of course, as he was still desperately trying not to lose his demeanor and wake up half the manor. If he moved- if he spoke- he knew the dams would break. 

He didn’t know how long he stayed like that, but eventually, when his back was sore from the strain and the kitten was finally stiff, the lights came on.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is curious- the kitten had cyclopia!
> 
> Cyclopia is the failure of the brain to split into two hemispheres, resulting in no nose, an undeveloped mouth and one single eye in the middle of the forehead. its extremely rare, and no animal or human with cyclopia has lived longer than a day after birth, and most are stillborn. In humans it will also result in a nose-like proboscis on the forehead. Don't look it up. It's terrifying if you're not used to it.
> 
> It's theorized to be caused by a random non-inherited mutation in the sonic hedgehog genome (i know. that name.)


End file.
